Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On April 11, 1991, the honourable Member for Yellowknife South commented in the 11th Assembly on the adversarial attitude taken by the Workers' Compensation Board in its dealings with injured workers across the Northwest Territories.
On Thursday of last week, my honourable colleague for Deh Cho commented on the board's treatment of aboriginal harvesters and on the closed door process that has been used to develop policies in this area. I rise today, Mr. Speaker, because I share both Mr. Whitford's and Mr. Gargan's concern. Something must be done about the Workers' Compensation Board.
Workers injured in the Northwest Territories endure unreasonable delays in the adjudication of their claims, delays in approval of returning programs, and a cumbersome appeal process. People who are unfortunate to live outside of Yellowknife -- like my constituency -- must deal with insensitive officials who consider it unnecessary to travel to the communities where no one must live and work.
Written communication from the board and its staff is formated in the most legalistic and imposing fashion possible. Internal policies that I have read are represented as law, operational preferences or representative of established policy.
Mr. Speaker, something has gone wrong. Where is the human component in dealing with people? Where is the regional representation? Where are the regional concerns being addressed by the Workers' Compensation Board? I find it -- we should all find it -- totally unacceptable that workers in the Northwest Territories would have to join together to form a self-help group in order to cope with the abuse they have received from the board and its administration. I believe this matter is of the utmost concern, and I would hope and urge the Minister responsible to give it his fullest attention. Thank you.
---Applause